DreadCentral.com interviews screenwriter Patrick Melton, who along with Marcus Dunstan wrote the excellent monster movie FEAST, leading to gigs on the last few SAW sequels. Melton discusses the unhappy situation on the latest SAW sequel, which saw SAW VI director Kevin Greutert pulled off PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 when Lionsgate exercised their contractual obligation to bring him back for SAW VII, but adds that he thinks Greutert will pull things together on the production, which is about halfway finished. Says Melton:
“It’s definitely the most expensive and ambitious Saw movie that we’ve done. Some of it is in response to last year’s Saw VI, which, while being the most critically acclaimed Saw film in a while, didn’t do particularly as well (at the box office) as everyone would have hoped, so we are going pretty far with this one in terms of the scale and intensity of the traps and the amount of twists, especially into the third act, which is just a plethora of twists and reveals.”
Up next for the team of Melton and Dunstan is a proposed sequel to THE COLLECTOR, which was penned by the team and directed by Dunstan.
“…we are seeing if we can work out some sort of a deal for us to write it and for Marcus to direct, but right now it’s just in the deal stage. It is a possibility. I couldn’t imagine it being made without Marcus directing it.”